4mo ago

Elon Musk joined Trump call with Ukraine’s Zelensky after US election

www.cnn.com Elon Musk joined Trump-Zelensky call amid concerns for future of Ukraine war | CNN

Trump put the call on speaker and Zelensky thanked Musk for his help with providing communications through Starlink to Ukraine in the ongoing war with Russia, a source told CNN.

Tech tycoon Elon Musk joined a call between US President-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the day after the presidential election, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

117 comments

God, I feel for Zelensky... Imagine fighting for your existence against Russia and having to talk to these morons for help.
- Remember when we had a whole impeachment hearing against Trump for withholding aid to Ukraine so he could get a political hit piece on Biden? I'm wondering how long it will take before a quid pro quo scenario pops up again. Either in Ukraine or elsewhere. So ya, we're all feeling for Zelensky in the next few years.
  
  There will be no agreements.
  trump is going to change US policy to excluding all intelligence and military support and will "leak" all known military intel to putin.
  
  Impeaching him might be on the docket, if the Republicans really want Vance in the puppet seat. I think they'd rather manipulate him than whatever fucking impending shit-splosion Trump will become about 3 minutes in.
  I think Vance might at least be convinced to do logical things. We know that isn't happening with Donny.
  
  There may exist a scenario where north korea is trying to build something that looks suspiciously like an Ohio class submarine and he has a strange golf bar appear on his desk.
- Zelensky probably spent the whole call wondering if it would be faster to just hand deliver everything they talked about directly to Putin.
- I'm sure his conclusion at the end was "We need to build nukes immediately".
- I’m sure they will help, “Just give Russia what they want, war over, problem solved”
- My guess is Trump essentially extorted him in the namel of "making a deal" in exchange for American aid.

Remember when they used to try to keep corruption somewhat hidden and deniable? Now the richest man in the world is just going to be walking around the White House, tugging the government’s leash on full display.
- Love watching the oligarchs take over...it's nowhere near as subtle as I thought it was going to be.

Fucker will disable Starlink in Ukraine and allow it in Russia
- He's going to be on the cabinet while getting billions in government contracts. The richest man in the world just got a job where he gets to to shovel more government money to himself. And that's what Trump calls 'draining the swamp' and 'sticking it to the elites'.
  And somehow, instead of democrats calling that out, they decided to find their own elites to trot out.
  
  Worst of it, government money is your tax dollar... You will pay more and more taxes to funnel the money to Trump's friends. Trump is the swamp thing!
- Didn't he do that already?
  
  It wasn't enabled in Crimea in the first place. The author misspoke/lied about in the book and has later admitted it.
  U.S. sanctions to Russia forbid the use of Starlink. This includes crimea and the occupied territories. That's why it wasn't enabled.
  To clarify on the Starlink issue: the Ukrainians THOUGHT coverage was enabled all the way to Crimea, but it was not. They asked Musk to enable it for their drone sub attack on the Russian fleet. Musk did not enable it, because he thought, probably correctly, that would cause a major war.
  And before someone points out the 'cause major war' things, those are Walters words, not Elon's. Musk said "It would make SpaceX explicitly complicit in a marjor act of war and conflict escalation" He later also added that had he been contacted by the US officials and asked to enable it he would, but they didn't.
- Nah, he'll use the location services from the dish to pinpoint the Ukrainian troop locations. If they're smart they'll start smashing them immediately.
- He's already done so, actually. Under the guise of "blackouts".

Since when do we allow regular civilians to participate in diplomatic calls?
- Since they have over $200 billion dollars
  
  So pay to play is back.
- Since the US bacame an oligarchy.
- It's almost like a member of Trump's cabinet was sentenced to prison for doing that exact thing between Trump's 2016 election and taking office.
  
  Yeah but for people to know that would require actually understanding the impeachment proceeding and prior/subsequent investigations.
  I think we all know how that went.
- When you have a president that dgaf about anything saying otherwise.
- It's beyond naive to call Elon a regular civilian
  
  My point was to point out he's not part of the government
  
  Yeah, he's an illegal immigrant, get it right.

Musk's whole "slash government spending" schtick is such a farce. Tesla wouldn't have domestic manufacturing facilities without a DOE loan. SpaceX survives off of government contracts.
- Slash government funding for everything except the socialism for the rich.
- The NPR article goes into this. Elon likely will award himself money without oversight while cutting programs like NPR and the SEC and other regulatory bodies etc.
- Slash Social Security, add EV subsidies, make them so that only Tesla qualifies in practice.
- Oh that never includes the donor class.

Hilarious that his administration is already leaking worse than a Russian submarine.

Zelensky deserves better than these hosers
- Maybe Germany France Italy Spain Sweden Finland Poland ... and the UK could step up?
  I mean let me dream a little.
  
  If others followed UK donations, this wouldn't be a problem.
  
  Germany, LMAO. Didn't they have their lips around putin's pipe that got blown up?
  I bet the "russia is a trade partner" shtick will come back real soon.

Ukraine is f*cked now and soon Europe too.
- Technically, a lot of NATO countries still have nukes. So they might be half as fucked.

What a dilema for Ukraine! I feel their abandonment will be a microcosm for our leaving to the wolves.
- I think a lot of Americans don't understand that the USA hedgemony isn't a divine right, it was a deliberate construction with tacit agreement of convenience from the western world.
  Much like an economy, belief makes it so.
  Much like the UK's arrogance has driven them into geopolitical obscurity, so will the USA's.
  In 15 years, Americans are going to wake up and realize that their voices are irrelevant in the world. I don't know how y'all are going to handle it.
  
  The USA became dominant by letting the world fight itself to ruins, then entering into the war late and declaring victory. TWICE.
  Being the only mostly undestroyed nation after a world war is immensely profitable.
  
  I deeply, desperately hope you’re right. In the best case, the military (including the nuclear arsenal) gets as hollowed out as russias before that realization comes.
  
  Hedge money
  
  I'm going to be bummed, but it'll be deserved. Maybe future generations will stop being entitled assholes. Idk. Don't want to live in a disintegrating country. Really don't want my kids to. But I guess we don't always get to pick.

This is bad

When you're a star they let you do it.

I guess we now know who will really hold power in the oval office. Spoiler: it's not Trump

A scammer gets reeled into a phone call between a president and a mobster wannabe.
Great timeline
- Said it before, I'll say it again....we are, absolutely, without question.....in the Biff timeline.
  
  Marty failed. Wtf.

Doesn't he have like ten companies to run... into the ground?
- The companies might do better if he's there less to make decisions for them.

"Look honey, the clown show already started."

Do y'all think Elon's looking to run for office one day? Or does he just find it exciting to be included?
- Musk doesn't need to run for office. He's the richest man in the world. With Trump as president, Musk can just call him, offer a few million and get whatever he wants.
  
  Musk has enough money to change whatever rules he wants and tie up all the government lawyers for years fighting over all the rules he might want to break.
  Billionaires shouldn’t exist.
- He's not eligible, born in south africa
  
  lol, doesn't matter.
- He can't be president, and I don't see him interested in any other position.
  
  Until trump, supermajority in Congress, and a hand picked supreme court say so
  
  it takes but one order from putin and suddenly he's eligible.
- He's from South Africa. He can't run for president.
- Musk bought Trump and Trump won, musk already has the office.
- Elon Musk is a fluffer, he's the Gimp

He paid for Ukraine's StarLink connections that he shuts off when Musk feels like it, and the incoming president who will shut off aid when Musk feels like it.

nice, a five year old participating in diplomacy regarding nation destroying wars. what could go wrong.

I wonder if this will make it into the Senate Confirmation Hearings when Trump makes him Secretary of Making Things Worse Before They Get Better. (Or maybe they are smart enough to not give him a job that requires Congressional approval....)

hasnt musk given his starlink crap to the russian military?

Not a surprise knowing Trump these days.

So Trump and Vance are outsourcing their jobs to Musk...?

My prediction is Zelenasky will call for an ellection allowing Trump to fund the war without looking weak after the shut he said about Zelenasky.
It is a real possibility since iran and russia are working together and trump backs israel against iran. The logical next step is to back ukraine againts russia.
- That's a very uninformed thing to say. Trump is beholden to Putin.
  
  I wouldnt be too sure of that. Trump is a businessman who will take what he can and give back as little as possible. Trump got the presidency why honour any agreement with putin?

117 comments